


Meriyasu to the Lost Penitent

by FergardStratoavis



Category: Blasphemous (Video Game), 僕のヒーローアカデミア | Boku no Hero Academia | My Hero Academia
Genre: Christianity, Church Ruins, Gen, New Year trip, Winter
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-08-14
Updated: 2021-02-22
Packaged: 2021-03-06 01:47:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,048
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25895416
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FergardStratoavis/pseuds/FergardStratoavis
Summary: A girl of thorned hairs meets a sinner from another world.For Quirky are the ways of the Miracle.
Comments: 9
Kudos: 16





	1. Sorrowful be the Heart, Shiozaki Ibara

Ibara didn’t originally plan to go to Sapporo with the others.

The invitation was forwarded by Shishida. Apparently, his grandmother was entertaining inviting him and his friends for a New Year celebrations. According to his somewhat sheepish description, the entire class would find space to house there if they so desired. Ibara would ordinarily just give them their blessing to enjoy their outing. Her idea of rest – especially in the winter – was to remain holed up in the warm confines of her abode, wrapped in her blankets, vines, and with a mug of hot chocolate warming up her hands.

It was only when she overheard Kaibara and Monoma talking about local landmarks did she stop to listen and consider. According to their photography buff, the area nearby their resting place was lush with ruins overtaken by nature and never quite reclaimed by civilization – perfect to take pictures of. Some of these were churches and chapels of the Faith, dating back even to the onset of Quirks.

Though Ibara preferred her churches safe and welcoming, something about seeing – perhaps even visiting – an abandoned, ruined one sparked a bit of a guilty pleasure in her. How did these structures of the Lord hold up all these years? Did anyone visit them for something other than haunting sights? Could they perhaps be restored and welcome believers once more?

Before she reflected that a promise of maybe seeing such a place might have been a bit of a weak reason to go, she was already outfitted with everything needed for such a journey.

“Ha. Tsubu owes me one hundred yen.” Setsuna snickered upon seeing Ibara’s loaded backpack. The thornette raised an eyebrow in a silent question. “I knew you wouldn’t resist the call to adventure once Sen mentioned the churches.”

“That’s… there’s nothing wrong with that, is there?” She replied a little too fast and a little too sheepishly, seeing as the lizard girl’s grin only grew.

“Not at all~ Hope you’ll have fun out there~”

\----

Not counting her, Shishida, and Kaibara, there was five more of her classmates tagging along.

The most surprising one was no doubt Kamakiri. “I just like nature, alright?” He grumbled when questioned. “You’re goin’ because of them churches, and you don’t see me bothering you about it.”

“He’s going because of that new insectarium they set up—“

“I _will_ toss you out the fucking train, Kuroiro.”

“No tossing shall occur.” Reiko mumbled from her sleeping corner, tucked in-between her headrest and her Majestic-themed blanket. “Lest you invite a most terrible wrath of a roused spirit disturbed from her slumber.”

“Nothing to be ashamed of, Kamakiri!” Pony piped in cheerfully. “I’m going because of anime convention!”

“We just need to make sure we coordinate our outings.” Shishida pointed out, though his eyes were still down in his book. “Both for the sake of a smooth stay here and in case of emergencies.”

“Agreed. We all want to get the most out of Shishida-san’s grandmother’s gracious invitation.” Ibara nodded. Their furry Vice-Prez shook his head with a chuckle.

“I’m afraid grandmother is going to be most displeased that there’s only seven more people with me, and not a whole class.”

“I don’t know if we’d be able to survive Monoma staying for holidays.” Kaibara hummed, himself more concerned with calibrating his camera.

Through all of this, Manga – the other person going on the convention with Pony – remained fast asleep, his speech bubble shaped into three Z’s.

\----

Although Grandma Shishida’s huge mansion was on the outskirts of the Sapporo agglomeration, Ibara and Sen still had to take a local train to their destination.

“The first one isn’t far from here.” Kaibara hummed once they left the dusty old train station and exited into the village proper. It was a far cry from the grand lights of cities that Ibara had grown accustomed to during her stay in the UA. Things were much slower and less advanced in these rural parts. “Got everything?”

“Including an emergency flare, yes.” Both of them carried backpacks loaded with necessary things for what would no doubt become a day-long venture. Daylight was in short supply during winter, and so they set out as early in the morning as they could. The sun had yet to fully emerge from under the horizon – which meant they would spend a whole chilly day walking around.

Ibara even came equipped with a tailor-made cap to shield her thorns from the cold. It looked a little silly, but given the situation and the place, they probably looked out of place in these parts already – just a couple of big-city tourists doing whatever it was that big-city tourists did. “Alright. There’s about three Christian ruins around these parts.” Sen explained, rolling out a map of the area. “There’s a small shrine the closest from here, a bigger church, and another shrine the furthest to the west.”

“Anything else of notice?”

“Well, the whole place is teeming with prospective shots.” He replied with a slight chuckle. “On our way to that shrine we’ll pass by a gully, a lake, and the ruins of a Buddhist monastery, at the very least.”

“A lot of things around these parts. Are rural areas like that usually?” Sen tapped his chin in thought.

“It varies. You’ll never have a shortage of nature, but the ruins just happen to be here and there. Most people in Japan live in cities or near cities, so a lot of them are overlooked.”

“It’s such a shame… just how much history is lost here?”

“Guess we can unearth at least some of it.” As they reached the edge of the village, about to set off into the wilderness, Ibara took notice of an older gentleman – give or take in his seventies, dressed in a thick gray winter coat – waving to them. “Yeah, I see him too.” Sen nodded, eyes following the greenette’s. “Let’s see what he wants?”

“That’s only prudent to do.”

As it turned out, the older gentleman – with a face that spoke of an eventful life; devoid of the left eye and with the tip of the pointed left ear missing, amid lesser scars here and there – wanted to issue a warning. “If you’re looking for the churches, they’re haunted.”

“...haunted?”

“Some folks saw a weird creature thing skulking in the dark near the ruins.” The old man explained. “Most folks here don’t have any of them weird features like city slickers do, and we all know each other around these parts. It was no animal either, walked on two legs just fine.” The two students looked at each other, clearly not convinced. The last time they were dealing with a “ghost”, it turned out to be a sleepwalking Hagakure.

...but if the “weird creature thing” wasn’t a local or an animal… “Some kind of villain trying to lay low?” Sen suggested uncertainly. The old man laughed and shook his head.

“In here? We’d be hard-pressed to find a common robber, let alone one of those TV-worthy types.” He said, waving off the concern. The two hero hopefuls cast themselves uncertain looks. “But perhaps it’s nothing.” Laughing again, the old man turned to leave. “Don’t let the old man’s ramblings mess up your vacation, younglings.”

Ibara and Sen cast each other a look again. “Want to go to that church first?”

\----

To say the ruin was “out of the way” wouldn’t quite do it justice.

Once they were off the old road – desperately in need of repair, Sen thought in annoyance, after nearly losing his teeth from a sudden trip in a tractor wheel-shaped hole – it’s been fifteen minutes of ponderous trek through the icy conifer forest. The Drill user prouded himself on being able to scale through the wild with relative ease – but these particular woods seemed to have it out for him, offering nothing but thorny branches, gnarled vines and layers upon layers of shrubbery.

Ibara was doing only marginally better, though it almost felt like some of this treacherous nature was parting before her to make things easier for her. Or maybe he was way more tired than he thought he was. Soon enough, the church in question appeared in the field of vision, hidden on a small snowy meadow between the tall pinetrees.

Though she was silent, Sen could feel Ibara’s distress upon seeing it: what once was must have been a quaint homely place was nearly reclaimed by nature. At the same time, holy smokes, what a place; the oak growing inside the totaled belltower was something else. This was a one in a million place, and there was a high possibility that somewhere between these ruined bits lurked a villain of some kind.

That, or one of the locals seeing things. Hopefully the latter. “We should enter first.” Ibara nodded, taking her cap off to let her vines flare – and then shudder as the cold attacked them. “If there’s evil afoot, we must be prepared to fight back.”

“I’ve got the flare ready.” He nodded, procuring the single-use flare gun. Ibara’s Quirk was more suited for defense and apprehension, even in unfavorable conditions, and the flare was bound to be seen by local police officers or, hopefully, a rural hero on patrol. “After you, Shiozaki.” The greenette hummed in assent, settling her backpack down as quietly as possible before stepping inside past the overturned pew onto the cracked floor.

The church had definitely seen better times, and yet, she could still feel the faint familiarity as she assessed the time-worn environs. The layout was about the same as the church where she attended as a wee believer together with her grandparents. The confessionals were to the sides, the left one missing a part of its doors; the remains of once beautiful stained glass windows haunted the edges of the walls, but she could still recognize one of them; Jesus recalling Lazarus from the dead.

All Stations of the Cross were intact, save for the missing twelfth and thirteenth. The altar, covered in snow falling from the hole in the roof – which would normally cast sunlight right on top of it; a display of poetry Ibara could appreciate – rested undisturbed; to the side stood a Gothic pulpit, once on four, now on three legs and balancing precariously not to topple. The tabernacle rested in the back, the golden box pried open in an affront of a blasphemy.

...and before the altar, knelt in silent prayer on one knee, was a man.

Ibara forced herself to still her breathing for a moment – but a precarious step on a cracked floor revealed their position. Still she stood in place, even after Sen hissed in a warning – the man at the altar seemed content to give them a moment before he finally rose. He had a sword by him, which he supported himself on, and some manner of armor reminiscent of a medieval warrior.

As he turned to face them, the two students were greeted by a stoic mask hidden in a tall, pointy helmet; wrapped and crowned with steel thorns. After a moment of confusion, she recognized it as a penitent’s wear, stylized as some sort of a Christian warrior monk – someone from far away. From very far away.

The Penitent’s head tilted just slightly, regarding Ibara’s thorny hair.


	2. Love Thy Neighbor

The silence was unbearable.

The tense staredown between Ibara and the weird guy in a weird helmet was making Sen antsy. Whatever it was that she understood about the stranger, it kept her in place. Or perhaps the guy was quick on the uptake and was already using his Quirk to keep her in place.

Before he could fire the flare or move in and get up close and personal with the guy, Ibara finally spoke, her posture straightening up and hands opening. “And thou, Solomon my son, know thou the God of thy father, and serve him with a perfect heart and with a willing mind: for the Lord searcheth all hearts, and understandeth all the imaginations of the thoughts: if thou seek him, he will be found of thee; but if thou forsake him, he will cast thee off for ever.”

Sen had little to no idea about Christianity and even less about Ibara’s hot takes from the Bible – but it was hard not to get chills when she cited these holy words with such conviction. Whatever that meant, it seemed to have an effect on the stranger – his stance relaxed from alert and wary to more neutral as he set his sword blade-down in the ground again. Only now could Sen notice its odd design; it was obviously a Western kind of blade, but it had no guard, and its hilt looked to be the most morbid and uncomfortable hilt that could have existed – a figurine of a man twisted around a pole. Steel thorns like the ones on his helmet covered near its entirety, and in such a way that holding the blade would deliberately harm the user.

The more he learned about the stranger, the less sure Sen was of himself. “What is your penance, fellow man?” Ibara called in a tone of stern concern. “Why do you skulk in this dead church, seeking answers for your sins?” The man did not answer immediately, looking around as if to indeed confirm this was a church. Even then, the answer was not what Sen expected; the man simply put a finger to the mouth of his mask, like he was shushing them.

“A vow of silence?” Ibara confirmed, and received that confirmation in a terse nod. Not the first guess Sen would have made. “Kaibara-san, do you have a notebook on hand?”

“...yeah, I should have something.” One rummage of his backpack later, he procured one used up notebook and a pen. “Though it’d be more convenient if he just talked.”

“We’ll respect the penance of a religious man, sinner or otherwise.” The greenette shook her head, taking a moment to put her cap back on and let her chilled thorns rest. “Especially since he’s been gracious enough not to give us trouble or grief.” Sen shrugged indifferently. Excuse him for not being entirely trustworthy of a weird stranger with a weird aesthetic camping in a ruined church.

Though speaking of camping, where _did_ the stranger have… well, anything? If he was here long enough to have people talking about him in hushed rumors, just where did he store his belongings? Was that armor and the sword all he had with him?

Meanwhile, Ibara offered the stranger the writing utensils and a reassuring smile once more. “Will this be acceptable?” The man in a capirote helmet stared at the presented items. Vow of silence was just that – there was no need to cut off all communication with a fellow man (not that he normally needed it in these trying times). Slowly, he took the pen, feeling its odd bulbous shape. A quill this was certainly not, but it too had a small pointy end.

With the open book of pages checkered with thin blue lines, he was ready to “speak”, he thought.

\----

There was an obvious language barrier between the two students and the Penitent.

Ibara asked a few questions, mostly regarding the man’s identity and the circumstances behind his stay here. The Penitent was willing to answer, at least – but once he wrote down his words as succinctly as possible, only confusion manifested on the faces of the two.

“...this isn’t Latin.” Ibara mumbled, trying to make sense of the crooked handwriting of someone obviously unused to using a pen.

“Yeah, I’ve got nothing. Let me dial up Yaoyorozu.” Sen offered, squinting at the unfamiliar characters.

“You have Yaoyorozu-san’s number?”

“Nope, but Kendo should. Let me just dial up—“

“Outside, please?” Sen resisted an urge to quip back and just ran a hand over his face in exasperation.

“You know I’ll probably have to come back with Yaoyorozu on the phone?”

“We’ll get to that bridge when we cross it.”

“You’re the boss, Shiozaki. Just… holler if anything” Sen cast the Penitent a long, heavy look. “happens, alright?” With one more warning look, the Drill user departed from the church. The man in a capirote helmet watched him go with minor curiosity. There were no weapons on him, and yet he seemed confident he would be able to offer resistance if need to. Then again, this land had its surprises – he already saw people with features that could only be called “unnatural”, yet none of them looked to be anywhere close to the Afflicted Horde of the Miracle.

Indeed, it felt like the Miracle itself was absent from this land. He had yet to decide if this was a good thing.

He saw the thorn-haired girl look towards the rosary attached to his cord. Whatever religion she worshiped – he knew with his heart her earlier words were a passage from a holy book, but it was nothing he was familiar with – she was obviously much more involved in it than her peer. “...ah, apologies. I meant not to stare...” She fumbled once she realized she was staring, but he was willing to humor her, offering her the rosary for examination.

Ibara hesitated. It wasn’t right, falling prey to childish curiosity like that, but the rosary of the Penitent matched nothing she knew. There was no cross at the beginning of it, but a sharp eight-shaped symbol instead. The beads – of cheap clay make and bearing the dull redness of their material – were fine, but the bigger ones at the end of each decade weren’t even beads at all sometimes.

The rosary slipped into her gloved hands as she appraised it. What looked like a silver bead was instead a dead grape coated in silver. Another one had a pelican likeness on it, with the aquamarine coating scraped off near-entirely. Next was a tiny jar in which swirled thin, nearly imperceptible smoke. A big toe made of limestone, with the hole in the middle of the toenail to allow the wire in. A rolled up piece of crimson cloth, on which Ibara could still smell anointing oils – neither of the fragrances were myrrh nor cinnamon. A ball of blue wax, molded to fit the size of the other “beads”. Finally, thorns shaped into a symbol not unlike the one at the beginning of his rosary. Enormous work must have been put into molding them, and much pain was had in the process of making it.

Perhaps she would be affronted in another situation, but the man struck her as deeply religious in his own way. These items, picked up on his journey to redemption, held value to him – enough value to entrust his faith into them. Ibara returned the rosary gingerly. “You’ve come a long way from home, fellow man.” She spoke softly. The man’s shoulders moved slightly in a lost shrug. “And I don’t suppose you can return so easily...”

Was this strange sinner even of this Earth, she wondered?

\----

Momo had seen some strange languages over the course of the years.

Even prior to attending U.A and refining her Quirk, she could pride herself on knowing no less than six tongues at a communicative level, and perfected Latin as preparations for her venture into Japan’s best Hero School. This included written and spoken angles, and she wasn’t the worst at calligraphy of Western characters either.

Which is why she didn’t like that she was feeling absolutely stumped upon seeing the strange letters on the screen of her laptop.

It was a strange mix of Latin, Spanish, and Portuguese (and the latter two were fairly similar to each other already), with a dash of German and… ancient Greek? Not that the circumstances behind these characters put her at ease either. Called by 1B’s Kaibara-san of all people, regarding communicating with a stranger he and Shiozaki-san found during their trip to Hokkaido – all of it felt like they were held hostage by a villain or trapped in an otherwise unreachable place.

...it certainly didn’t help that the two of them looked to be in some kind of snowy ruin right now… “I can see about live translation, if that’s fine. Context should help me with deciphering the language.” She suggested to Kaibara on the other side.

“Works for me. Shiozaki?” A quiet hum of assent. “Alright, putting you on the loudspeaker, Yaoyorozu. Try not to freak out, pointy hat guy.”

“It’s a _capirote_ , Kaibara-san.” Momo blinked. A penitent hood of a Catholic flagellant? Certainly not the kind of headwear an ordinary traveler would have. Were they really okay…?

“Can I, um… see the man you’re helping out, Kaibara-san?” Momo asked sheepishly. His expression turned a little uncertain before his eyes wandered to the side, likely towards the stranger. “I realize I’m probably being oversensitive, but it would put me at ease if I could—“

“No, don’t mention it. Here you go.” Momo thus came face-to-face (such as it was) with the stranger, or rather face-to-mask. The cold iron of an unflinching visage didn’t strike her as matching the description of a capirote, but Kaibara’s phone then moved up, to the pointy helmet wrapped in thorns and… oh dear.

“...h-hello.” She greeted the man sheepishly, feeling something icky crawl up her spine. The stranger did not reply beyond a curt nod after a moment. It felt as if he wasn’t very familiar with the notion of speaking to someone in such a manner – which raised more questions than answers. At least him(?) not talking made sense if they were using written word to communicate – he must have been unable to.

Thus began Momo’s first bout of live translation.

\----

The Penitent had no name to give.

He came from the land called Cvstodia; a grim place besieged by strange happenings. It seemed to resemble nothing like what he saw here in rural Japan; neither did the three hero hopefuls ever hear of the place. Various items in the students’s possession puzzled him fiercely, although he was quick to understand the concept of an item that let two people communicate over long distances.

He had no idea how he ended up here, but kept to himself out of fear of the strange folk he spotted outside the forest. Would probably be a reasonable idea if it wasn’t the middle of winter and the guy didn’t wear so much armor on him, Sen thought. Apparently, Shiozaki’s hair was also of interest to him. After a bit more research – during which both her and Yaoyorozu grew ever so slightly more distressed – it was revealed that The Penitent had prior experience with thorned hairs.

Back then, he was collecting the girl’s remains for a burial.

“Still… you cannot stay the night here.” Shiozaki shook her head resolutely. “It’s cold enough right now. I cannot imagine you remaining in good health if you were to sleep in this church.”

“Are you thinking to bring him back to Grandma Shishida’s place? Because I don’t know if that’s a good idea…” Kaibara pointed out with a frown. “...admittedly, I don’t have better ones.”

The Penitent’s response came with a scribble of the pen. There seemed to be no hesitation in the answer. “It doesn’t look like he wants to come.” Yaoyorozu sighed from the phone. The two 1B students on-site exchanged looks.

“Look, buddy, as long as you don’t… do anything weird, it should be fine.” Sen said with a sigh. “And it beats slumming in here. It’s a pretty place, but I wouldn’t want to live here.”

“And we will have to figure out how you ended up here to begin with.” Ibara pointed out, hands tented together in concern. “Perhaps there is a way to send you back. If you so desire.” This time, The Penitent’s pen was silent. There was certainly a temptation to abandon his quest now that he got away from Cvstodia and The Miracle by this divine stroke of faith. There was no nagging of the Higher Wills in this place. It truly felt as if he ended up in another world altogether. The strange findings and the strange people he met all lent themselves to this idea.

...but if he was deprived of his penance… then what else was left for him?

**Author's Note:**

> So that's a silly idea I'm into now that I replayed some Blasphemous. One of the sidequests there involves gathering the remains of a girl named Tentudia, whose hair was long, thick thorns - not unlike those of Ibara. Coupled with our Vine girl being strong of faith in Christianity and Blasphemous's religion of choice being a dark take on various Christian themes, the idea wrote itself. 
> 
> As for the name of the fic, I took the theme naming of spells in Blasphemous (prayers) being named after various Spanish song types, and used what little I know about Japanese music to do the same here. Hopefully you can put up with my ramblings while waiting for other bigger work of mine. ^-^;


End file.
